Course credit
3 credit hours
Course description
Ethnographic survey of sociocultural systems developed by foraging and horticultural peoples of South America; emphasis on relationships that exist among ecological factors, subsistence techniques, social organizations, and belief systems from holistic, comparative, and cross-cultural perspectives.
Delivery
This course is available in a web-based format, utilizing web pages and WebCT, a computer conferencing program. WebCT requires Internet access and a web browser — no additional software is required. Students may need access to someone who can assist with computer set-up.
This course is available in a print-based format. Mail completed assignments to the GIS Office. We will forward them to the instructor for grading.
Prerequisites
none
Instructor
Anne Woodrick, Associate Professor
Evaluation
12 assignments, 2 map assignments, 4 exams
Overview
This course, Non-Western Cultures - Native Central and South America, satisfies the Nonwestern requirement in the General Education program. It is designed to broaden a student's understanding of different socio-cultural systems. The two broadly defined culture areas in this course include (1) the indigenous peoples of Mexico and Northern Central America and (2) the indigenous peoples of the Amazon Basin and the Andean Highlands of South America. This course deals holistically with society and cultural life and course materials will address the environment, the prehistory, colonial history, and contemporary life of a selected number of Native American peoples.
Included in the course will be the basic social, scientific, and humanistic concepts, terms and attitudes so that students might overcome any ethnocentrism and understand and appreciate cultures other than their own. Ethnocentrism is an attitude based upon judging another society's customs and ideas in the context of one's own culture. Students should recognize that in the process of learning about another culture area, they should try thinking about another society's customs and ideas from the point of view of that society's problems and opportunities. As a result, students will better understand not only nonwestern societies, but their own culture more deeply.
Basic Outline
Lesson 1 Introduction to Mesoamerica
Lesson 2 Ancient Mesoamerican Civilizations
Lesson 3 The Spanish Conquest
Exam 1
Lesson 4 The Colonial Period
Lesson 5 Independence and the Era of Liberal Reform
Lesson 6 Native Americans in the Modern Era
Exam 2
Lesson 7 Qollahuayas in the Andes Today
Lesson 8 Qollahuayas Ritual Life: Life Cycles
Lesson 9 Qollahuayas Ritual Life: Illness and Death
Exam 3
Lesson 10 Introduction to Tribal Society: The Yanomamo of the Amazon Rainforest
Lesson 11 Yanomamo Social Organization
Lesson 12 Yanomamo Warfare
Exam 4
Assignments
Each lesson consists of introductory comments on the events, individuals, and issues covered in the readings, a reading assignment, a list of important names and terms, and questions. Please read over the lists of names and terms and the questions carefully before reading the assignments. The lists and questions emphasize the major points to learn in each lesson and help prepare you for the examinations.
As you read the assignments, you may wish to take notes on the names, terms, and events listed. Do not turn these notes in with your assignment. Your answers to the questions compose the written assignment for each lesson.
Your assignment for each lesson, therefore, is to do the reading and to answer the questions. Your responses should be submitted as specified in the instructions included with each assignment.
Each lesson is worth 15 points. The number of questions for each lesson varies. Some questions are broad and require you to draw information from all the reading assignments for that lesson and perhaps from earlier lessons. These questions are often written with the intention for you to go beyond memory to a thoughtful appraisal of an issue. Other questions are more specific. Your answers may vary in length from one paragraph to several paragraphs.
After each question will be a number in parentheses. For example, Question 1 (4 pts). The number 4 indicates how many points out of 15 this question is worth. Judge the length of your answers to the number of points the questions are worth. Lessons 1 and 7 include a map assignment as part of the written assignment.
Exams
There are four exams in the course. An exam follows each set of three assignments. None of the exams is comprehensive, but instead tests you on the material included in the three lessons prior to each exam. Each exam is worth 50 points and consists of three parts.
The first part is Definitions, and is worth 10 points. I will select eight terms, taken from the list of names and terms provided with each assignment, and you will be required to define five of these terms. You must define the term/name and you must explain its importance/significance to the course material.
The second part is Essay. I will select four questions from your written assignments, and you are required to answer three of them. Each essay is worth five points, for a total of 15 points.
The third part of the exam will be 25 objective questions (multiple choice and true/false). The objective questions are worth one point each. Objective questions are drawn from your reading assignments and the lesson overviews, and the questions are not limited to the questions in the written assignments, but cover all course material included in the three lessons.
Grading
Your final grade will be based on the written assignments for each of the 12 lessons and the four exams. You must turn in all 12 assignments and take each exam in order to pass this course. Your grade will be based upon a standard scale.
The total number of course points is 380 (exams = 200; assignments = 180 points) and grades will be assigned according to:
Textbook(s)
Bastian, Joseph W. Mountain of the Condor: Metaphor and Ritual in an Andean Ayllu. Waveland Press. 1985.
Carmack, Robert, Janine Basco, and Gary Gossen. The Legacy of Mesoamerica. Prentice Hall. 1996.
Chagnon, Napoleon. Yanomamo. 5th edition. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publishers. 1997.
Texts are available from the vendor of your choice or
University Book and Supply
1009 West 23rd Street, Cedar Falls, IA 50613
Phone: 319-266-7581 or 800-728-7581
Fax: 319-277-1266
E-mail: bookstore@panthersupply.com
To enroll
ONLINE
GIS enrollment information
IN PERSON
UNI Continuing Education
2637 Hudson Road (corner of 27th St. and Hudson Rd.)
Cedar Falls, IA 50614-0223
Campus map (Look for Building 31)
For more information
Cindy Klodt, Guided Independent Study
UNI Continuing Education
319-273-2123 or 800-772-1746
ContinuingEd@uni.edu